As it said it would (CI No 1,441) Erskine House Plc has found a buyer for the Quest acquisition which has caused it so many problems. The Leiden, Netherlands-based personal computer equipment group Infotheek NV has bought QDL, Quest (Computer) Holdings and Quest Automation for an undisclosed sum. Infotheek had a turnover of $142m last year and claims to be the largest full service personal computer company in the Netherlands and one of the largest in Western Europe. Infotheek, which has 27 business units in 18 countries in Western Europe, already has a subsidiary in the UK called Micro Macro which is based in Milton Keynes. QDL supplies networking systems and Novell products and will be merged with Micro Macro, forming a UK networking and communications group. Meanwhile Infotheek has been looking for some lebensraum in Eastern Europe and so jumped at the chance to take over such an established Soviet business as that provided by Quest International. Quest, which distributes Apricot personal computers, has an office in Moscow and is the largest partner in the Anglo-Soviet Joint Venture Trio which has a Moscow staff of 30, with five sales offices set up in a number of Soviet republics. It will be run as an autonomous business registered under the Quest name in the UK in order to ensure that it retains the Soviet accreditation it has held for 17 years. Quest will be relieved to find itself in the hands of a responsible personal computer services group that doesn’t have a box-shifter mentality (CI No 1,454).
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